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The Diary of a Shanghai Physician

The article "Doctor Smolnikoff's memoir" by Katya Knyazeva says "One of the most informative and entertaining accounts of Shanghai in the 1940s was written by Victor Smolnikoff. He was born in Harbin in 1914, studied in Aurora University in Shanghai and worked as a doctor in the Marshall & Partners firm until 1954. His situation was unique compared to other Shanghai Russians: he was a full-on partner in the largest medical firm in Shanghai and a Soviet citizen at the same time – much to the chagrin of his British subordinates, who complained that a Communist exploits the subjects of the Empire. Smolnikoff had two secretaries, drove an English car and lived in a large mansion on Rue Borgeat together with his Russian wife and six children.

Among the firm’s permanent clients were employees of Shanghai Municipal Police and a number of high-profile westerners. Because he paid a lot of house calls he got to see the insides of a variety of residences in Shanghai – from top suites in Cathay House to H. H. Kung’s brothel in the western suburbs. One of his clients suggested Smolnikoff should write a book entitled “Twenty Years in Shanghai Bedrooms.”

As a doctor he was in a unique position to be in the middle of things, to observe and record. He treated the victims of the 1937 Idzumo incident, helped captives of Lunghwa internment camp go on clandestine dates in the STD department of General Hospital, poured vodka to Sikh policemen and witnessed the decline of foreign Shanghai for several years after Liberation.

The whole family repatriated to the Soviet Union in 1954"

The article then has a few extracts in English from the memoir https://avezink.livejournal.com/24214.html

His memoirs were written in the 1970s in Russian and appear to have been published in Russia. An English translation was published in 2020 and is/was available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Shanghai-Physician-Victor-Smolnikoff/dp/B08R7V6XBF

The Amazon description says he was the author of a number of scientific books on anesthesiology, was a medical scientist and a practicing anesthesiologist . His role as an anesthesiologist is mentioned in the following link under entries dated 25th July [1959] and 5th August [1959] including the sentence "It seemed quite clear to both of us that Smolnikoff was the best person in anesthesiology in Moscow and very likely in the Soviet Union". http://calder.med.miami.edu/papper/diary_ussr.html